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June’s Psalm: Realized Rights and Unquestioned Humanity

Black women are stars in the wretched galaxy of planet Earth—and the world knows it. In these United States of America, what makes us magical is that despite our better judgement and knowledge of ourselves, we are taught to constantly reflect on how we might be received before we present our minds, bodies, voices and spirits to other people. We are forced to consider everyone else, constantly, in an environment of negotiating time, space, circumstances and the impact of the ways in which our empowered identities simply do not assimilate with white supremacy.

As we navigate an era of dictatorship that allows doctors to deny women who have had an abortion and transgender people the right to healthcare access based on the religious preferences of the provider, we must rely on our traditional healing work and Indigenous practices to disrupt this obstruction of our human rights. When a nation fails to prioritize healthcare as a human right, it is hazardous to the health and wellbeing of this country. We, Black women, nonbinary people and transgender folx know this firsthand. Starting with the first white baby we were forced to nurse on the plantation, our blood and the full helix of our DNA is the earthseed of this country. The identities of white supremacists whose ancestors lives thrived from our nourishment know our power. Their actions reflect the fear and fragility that breed the hostility toward our desire and demand to be all that we are, and everything that this nation has gained from our labor for us to inherit.